Lepidoptera: haiku

The butterfly weed’s
deep orange—
a monarch stops to fill up

*

Halogen flashlight:
he picks out the luna moth
from 100 yards

*

The stripped catalpa
still quivers in the breeze:
starving caterpillars

*

Candlelight vigil
outside the state prison—
the smell of burning moths

*

Hummingbird battle:
only the hummingbird moth
remains on the flowers

*

Red-spotted purples
mating in mid-air—
her wings stop moving

*

Bright yellow goldfinch—
the tattered tiger swallowtail
surrenders the thistles

*

Hot August day:
I stop to check out the fur
on a woolly bear caterpillar

*

The whole hillside turns
prematurely white:
fall webworms

*

Driving home after dark
from the flood-swollen river,
a forest full of moths

*

Earlier versions of the first and fourth haiku appeared on Identica, 6/26/10 and 6/26/10.

0 Replies to “Lepidoptera: haiku”

  1. I almost love moths more than butterflies…their paleness and fragility. But they also seem more animal-like…furry and bigger bodies and almost pet-able. A forest full of moths sounds lovely indeed.

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